Crazy Lyrics

I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I'm crazy for loving you

Quick Thought

Although Willie Nelson actually wrote the song, "Crazy" struck the perfect mood for Patsy Cline.

Deep Thought

The song's wistful, self-blaming tone is pitch-perfect in Patsy Cline's voice. Cline is known for singing out the sad side of love, and with good reason: her love life was almost always turbulent, and her huge voice filled even the simplest phrases with that turbulence.

After a failed first marriage and a long affair with a fellow musician, she met and married Charlie Dick in 1957. The relationship was said to be both passionate and troubled. The 1985 film Sweet Dreams portrays Charlie as abusive, a portrayal many agree is accurate, or even understated in the film.

"I'm crazy for loving you" might be some version of a sentiment that was very real for Patsy Cline. Certainly, the emotion in the line comes out through her singing.

I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted

Quick Thought

So, who do you think the "you" is here?

Deep Thought

According to country singer Dottie West's foreword in Ellis Nassour's Honky Tonk Angel, Patsy Cline once told her to "find one person to sing to and sing to just that one" in the audience.

Later, Cline's next step was, "Now make each person out there think he or she is that one and cast a spell over them." The crooning, direct lines in "Crazy" were great for wooing an audience: the whole audience became Patsy's "you."

(Source)

And then someday you'd leave me for somebody new

Quick Thought

Patsy Cline sings sadly about being left or cheated on. But in her private life, it wasn't only boyfriends and husbands who were the culprits.

Deep Thought

Cline apparently cheated on her first husband, a construction mogul, throughout their entire relationship. She married him at age 20 in an attempt to gain stability, but continued an affair with bandleader Bill Peer.

After her divorce in 1957, she quickly found somebody new: Charlie Dick. With Charlie, it seems, both partners cheated. And both partners came back every time. They were together until her untimely death in 1963.